Developing a framework for safety validation of multi-stakeholder changes in air transport operations

The high volume of air traffic over Europe is expected to double within the next 15 years. This requires changes in the airspace structure and in the organisation of air transport operations that involve multiple stakeholders. Changes, by regulation, require a sufficient safety validation, in order to show that the changed situation is safe and will remain safe during an applicable period. Many methods and techniques exist that can be used to support such safety validation process. However, for air transport operations, the stakeholders involved are numerous and diverse, and there are no guidelines on how to address their roles, responsibilities and goals during development and validation.This paper develops a safety validation framework that emphasises the active roles and collaboration of multiple stakeholders during the development phases of air transport operations. The framework is developed in three steps: First, established validation views from literature are identified and analysed to reveal open issues when it comes to their use for multi-stakeholder changes in air transport operations. Next, validation views emerging beyond the established ones are identified, and evaluated on whether they address the open issues. Finally, the strong points of established and emerging views are combined into a novel framework.